Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) (16 page)

Aaron knocked on the door of Room 402
across the way. There was no answer. He knocked again.

After his fifth round of knocking, it
looked like nobody was coming to the door. He darted his eyes toward his phone.
There was still no text from Stacy.

Aaron was about to head back downstairs,
when his hand inexplicably grabbed hold of the doorknob. He hadn’t even meant
to touch it. It was as if his brain had a mind of its own. He twisted the knob,
and the door opened right up.

“Oh… uhh…” Aaron stepped inside to see an
apartment as neat and tidy as any he’d ever seen. “Stacy? It’s me. It’s Aaron.
Are you here?”

No answer. He couldn’t even hear
footsteps.
 

Aaron decided to walk inside. He thought
it odd that a man as seemingly
smart
as Stacy would
keep his door unlocked. He closed the door, made his way to the living room
area, and turned to his left to see a light on in the back.

“Stacy? Are you here? Please say
something.”

Now Aaron wasn’t so concerned with
Stacy’s
well-being
; he was concerned about his
own
. Truth be told, he hadn’t actually
talked to Stacy on the phone, so he didn’t know his voice. This man, seriously,
could’ve been anyone. And he was starting to wonder if heading over to this
man’s apartment had been a really bad idea.

Aaron almost made it to the bedroom, when
a softer light grabbed his attention on the right. The kitchen table was set up
with two pasta dishes, two waters, a bottle of wine, half a dozen candles, and
a bed of roses. The setting was truly intimate, unlike any other Aaron had
experienced on a date with another man. Stacy had expected him after all; this
was proof.

“Hello?”

Aaron stepped back toward the man’s
bedroom, but he wasn’t in there, either. The bed was perfectly made, and a
pillow with a large heart symbol was placed in the center. His walls were lined
with bookshelves, with hundreds of titles placed on all four walls of the room.
Aaron’s mouth dropped open. Stacy hadn’t been lying. He really was well read,
as well as a bright scholar; awards and certificates lined the area above the
doorsill.

Aaron stepped back into the hall. He’d
investigated every room.
Every room but the bathroom.

“Stacy?” Aaron asked, slowly pushing the
bathroom door forward.

He had to try real hard not to scream.

Stacy sat on the toilet, his pants
wrapped around his ankles. He was leaned forward, his head resting up against
the shower door in front of him.

He looked like he had been dead for
hours.

Aaron started crying. He couldn’t just
leave him there. He didn’t know whether to call the police or to call James. He
didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

So he just stepped forward, leaned down,
and wrapped his arms around the man. Stacy didn’t look to be in his fifties
anymore. He looked close to
seventy
.

But Aaron didn’t care. He knew that this
all-powerful aging disease, the same one that hit Cameron last year, had just
ravaged Stacy’s body. Right in front of Aaron was proof that this disease
wasn’t going away anytime soon. It was, officially, here to stay.

“It’s going to kill us,” Aaron said, his
tears falling against Stacy’s pale white cheeks. “It’s going to kill us all.”

10.

Who
the hell is that?

“Umm, Leese?” I shouted across the way.
Liesel was almost to Yolanda’s car. She didn’t seem to hear me.

The footsteps got louder. And I could
feel the terror rising throughout my body, from my cold shoes to my angry
stomach, from my scratchy throat to my pulsating forehead. I knew in my heart
of hearts that the only person who could possibly be heading into the cavern
right now was Hannah, in all her evil glory, in her magical, vindictive flesh.

The footsteps were headed even closer,
and they were coming faster.

I turned to my right to see Yolanda
stepping out of her car and heading back over to me, Liesel following her.

I had to strain my ears to hear their
conversation, but thankfully there was enough
echo
in
the cavern for me to catch what they were saying.

“Who were you calling?” Liesel asked.

“Nobody,” she said. “I was checking in
with my boyfriend in San Diego to let him know my mission here was almost
complete.”

“Your mission isn’t over, Yolanda. It’s
far from over!”

“I need him to know I’m OK,” Yolanda
said, still walking fast. “What’s the harm in that?”

“The harm is that I don’t believe you!”

The sisters stopped and turned to each
other, and at that moment the figure appeared from the shadows at the corner of
the cavern.

It wasn’t Hannah.

It was someone I’d never seen before.

“What… is…
this
…”
the middle-aged man said upon entering the cavern. He looked like a
professional hiker, what with the sleeping bag, backpack, and multiple tools
hooked along his body. His hair was long, and his face was dirtied up, like he
hadn’t bathed in a week.

How
did this guy find us?
I
couldn’t help but ask myself.

The man turned to me, a genuine
appearance of unabashed wonderment on his face. “And who are you?”

I just stared at him. I wasn’t sure if I
was supposed to answer.

But before I could, I heard movement
coming from the right of me.

“
Shit
,”
Yolanda said. I could see her out of the corner of my eye rushing toward me,
faster and faster, Liesel chasing after her. As she got closer, I suddenly
realized she wasn’t aiming for me—she was running toward the hiker.

As Yolanda passed me, leaping up and down
like an experienced high jumper, her phone fell out of her pocket and to the
dirt below me. I didn’t have enough time to pick it up, though. Liesel had
already raced up to me and grabbed the phone herself.

“Hello…” the middle-aged man said, taking
a few steps back, not sure if Yolanda was running toward him to hug him or hurt
him. I wasn’t really sure, either. “My name is Ben Gaspin…”

“You’re
gonna
be
gasping
for air in a minute here,
buddy,” Yolanda said before pushing him down to the ground.

Did
she say what I think she said?

“Oh my God!” I screamed. “Yolanda! What
are you doing?”

“Yolanda! Don’t hurt him!” Liesel was
screaming even louder than I was. Our yells echoed across the cavern.

“Please… don’t… don’t hurt me,” the man
said as Yolanda pulled him up to her level. She had a strong grasp on his neck
from behind.

“What the hell is she doing?” I asked
Liesel.

“I have no idea,” she said, her eyes not on
Yolanda or the hiker, but on the phone in front of her.

“He’s seen us, clear as daylight!”
Yolanda shouted. “He has to go!”

“No!” the hiker shouted. “Please! I’ve
seen nothing!” I couldn’t believe how weak this man was, considering he was an
experienced hiker.

Or
maybe Yolanda’s stronger than I thought.

“What?” I stepped forward toward the two,
confused and scared as to what Yolanda might do.

Before I could get close enough to stop
her, Yolanda had a knife pulled on the man. I opened my mouth to scream again,
but no words came out. I watched in horror as Yolanda slashed the hiker’s
throat. As blood started spewing everywhere, the man gave me a haunting look
that seemed to ask:
what did I do to
deserve this?

He slumped to the
ground
,
face first
. He was dead.

“What…” I just stood in my place, aghast.
“Yolanda… what did you… what did you do…”

Yolanda dropped the knife next to his
body and stepped toward me. “Nobody can know what we’re doing down here. I feel
sorry for the guy, but there was no way we could let him live.”

“But… he didn’t see anything…”

“He could’ve seen you performing your
magic!” Yolanda shouted.

“And no one would’ve believed him!”

“Too big of a risk to take,” she said,
shaking her head.

“Says who?”

“Says me.”

I turned to my right. Liesel walked
toward me, her head down, as if she was lost in thought.

“Alicia,” Yolanda said, turning to her
sister, “you agree with me, right?”

“Of course I do. Cameron, she’s right.”

“She’s not right!” I stared at Liesel in
disbelief. I couldn’t believe she was being nonchalant about what had been
committed. “The man was innocent!”

“I’m gonna inspect the body,” Liesel
said, passing us by and heading over to the man, who had blood seeping out from
under his face and neck.

Yolanda grabbed my arms and pulled me closer.
For a second I thought she might try to hurt me, too. “This is war, Cameron. Do
you understand that? The only way we’re going to win is if we stay hidden, if
we don’t draw attention to ourselves. You think I don’t know about what you and
Liesel did at your high school graduation? The whole world knows! You two
floated in the air for close to a minute, and I’m still shocked no one did
anything about it! These powers Liesel once had, that you have now? They’re
sacred. And they can’t be found out, not from anyone. I don’t care who that guy
was. If he had been a child, I would’ve killed him, too. We can’t
let our secret out
,
understand
? If
we have any chance at defeating Hannah, we’re—”

“
Gonna
have to
kill you, too,” Liesel said, slamming a shovel down on top of Yolanda’s head.
Yolanda groaned—a kind of “hmph” sound—and fell back against the
dirt.

Now I was really stumped. “What the
hell?”

Liesel shoved her foot against Yolanda’s
abdomen, and screamed, “
Who
have you been talking to?”

Yolanda shook her head, fear plastered
all over her face. “Wh… What…”

“Answer me!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking
ab—”

Liesel showed her the cell phone, and the
Caller ID history. “The last
thirteen
calls
you’ve made have been to Hannah. How could you do this to me, Yolanda? How
could you do this to me and Cameron?”

“Alicia, you don’t understand…”

“You’re on Hannah’s side?”

“Of course not!”

Liesel kneeled down, grabbed the shovel,
and raised it up top Yolanda’s head. “You want it in the
face
this time?”

“No!” Yolanda shouted.

“Then answer me.”

“I will.”

Liesel waited. “Well?”

Yolanda looked at me, then back at
Liesel. “Could you lean in close? I don’t want Cameron to hear.”

Liesel looked at me with suspicion,
then
kneeled down toward Yolanda’s mouth.

But before she said anything, Yolanda
leaned forward, grabbed for the shovel, and missed.

“Give it!” Yolanda shouted. “Give me the
shovel, damn it!”

Liesel gave it to her all right. She
slammed it down against Yolanda’s nose, and blood sprayed all over the sister’s
face. Yolanda brought her head back down to the ground, looking, finally,
defeated.

But Yolanda didn’t start crying; instead,
she started laughing.

I took a few steps closer to Liesel, who
looked both in pain at her adopted sister’s disloyalty and enraged at what
Hannah had gotten the girl to do for her.

“Do you two have any idea what’s coming
to you?” Yolanda asked rhetorically, letting out a big whopper of a laugh.

“What do you know?” Liesel shoved her
foot against Yolanda’s abdomen. Yolanda coughed and bit down on her bottom lip.

She smiled. “I know a hell of a lot more
than you do, you dumb knocked up bitch—”

“HEY!” Now it was my turn to get angry. I
brought my foot down on the girl’s abdomen, too. Yolanda coughed up some blood
and smiled, even though Liesel and I could see that the girl was in massive
pain. Her nose looked twisted, and the most blood of all was seeping down her
nostrils. “That’s my wife you’re talking to!”

Liesel pushed down harder. “Tell us what
you know, Yolanda. Right now.”

“Or you’ll what?” Yolanda asked.

Liesel grabbed for the shovel, and
Yolanda put her hands up in the air. “Try me,” Liesel said.

“OK,” Yolanda said. “OK, OK, OK.”

“
Speak
,”
Liesel said, pushing the shovel up against Yolanda’s neck.

Yolanda seemed to have difficulty
breathing, but she managed to smile through all the blood and cracked teeth.
“Hannah is going to destroy you both—”

“How do we find her?” Liesel shouted. I
had never seen this much menace on Liesel’s face before. She looked at the
point of actually killing her own sister.